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England welcome pressure of must-win games in preparation for World T20

Mayank Kumar

Although England would have loved winning the series against India in the fourth T20I itself, they are not too disappointed at the prospect of playing an all-stake decider to win the series. 

The series has been used as a building block for the T20 World Cup by both sides, with England skipper Eoin Morgan stating that playing high-stakes games will do the team a lot good leading into the big tournament.

"We really want to play in must-win games like this. They're the closest thing that we get to playing in a World Cup or a Champions Trophy and against a fantastic side like India, it should bode to be a great game,” Morgan said in the post-match presentation.

All-rounder Ben Stokes echoed the skipper's viewpoint when he said that there will be pressure on both the tourists and the hosts as let-ups in the final game will see them losing the series. He said that England are desperate to win this series in order to keep the winning habit going, however, winning from crunch situations will make England a richer side in terms of experience going through such circumstances before the T20 World Cup.

"In an ideal world, we would have loved to have gone into the next game already won the series. We go into the next game with a huge amount of pressure on our shoulders as a team, because whoever wins that game wins the series. That's great for us as a team, especially with a T20 World Cup coming up because the more pressure situations we get put into as a team the more, I think we'll benefit from it." Stokes said.

"It is a final because if we don't win then we lose a series and we don't want to lose series, we want to win and we want to make a habit of winning them. The more situations we get put into where we've got pressure on us and we keep prevailing, that's just going to do us the world of good," he added.

England could not chase down the target of 186 set by India in the fourth T20I to face a loss for the first time as the team batting second and the all-important decider will be played at the same venue Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

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